China to remove 25 DiDi apps from app stores as crackdown intensifies; lost about $21.5 billion in just 3 days

We wrote about the DiDi a week ago after the stock of the Chinese ride-sharing startup crashed from 18% high to near its original IPO price on the first day of its IPO debut. Uknown to many investors, the company was under intense scrutiny by the Chinese government.

The latest probe comes after the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) alleged DiDi had illegally collected users’ personal information. The authority later asked the ride-sharing company to fix the problems and ordered app stores in China to remove DiDi.

In a statement on Friday, The CAC said that it would remove 25 mobile apps operated by Didi Global from China app stores as the government stepped up a crackdown on the ride-hailing giant. CAC said the 25 DiDi apps used data that was illegally collected by the company including apps for its delivery service, camera device and finance services. The CAC also told DiDi to stop registering new users as it launched a probe into the company and while the investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, in another blow to the company, CNBC also reported today that Didi’s main app has also been removed from Tencent’s WeChat messaging service and Ant Group’s Alipay.

DiDi went public last week and closed at $14.14 apiece just $0.14 cent above the original IPO price, giving the company a market cap of about $67.8 billion. Since then, DiDi has lost about $21.5 billion in market value in three sessions this week as the Chinese government crackdown intensifies.

Founded in 2012 by Cheng Wei, DiDi Chuxing is a mobile transportation ride-sharing platform, AI, and autonomous technology conglomerate, offering a full range of transportation services to more than 450 million users across over 400 cities in China. Headquartered in Beijing, DiDi provides services including taxi hailing, private ride-hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive, DiDi Car Rental, DiDi Enterprise Solutions, DiDi Minibus, DiDi Luxe, and bike-sharing to users in China via a smartphone application. DiDi has nearly 9,000 employees with 40 percent women.

DiDi is now the world’s largest and most valuable ride-sharing company, with an investment and M&A portfolio in the ride and bike-sharing industry across the globe. The company carries 25 million rides per day, far surpassing the combined daily rides of all the other ride-sharing companies around the world. Now, Didi is ahead of the race against its US competitor, Uber, to conquer the global ride-hailing market, which according to an estimate from Goldman Sachs, is expected to grow to $285 billion by 2030.